Methods and systems for associating input schemes with physical world objects

ABSTRACT

Methods and systems are described herein for a media guidance application that allows users to associate input schemes with physical objects in an augmented reality environment. Specifically, the media guidance application may recognize physical objects in an augmented reality environment and allow users to identify input schemes to associate with the physical objects, wherein the input schemes are ways in which users may control presentation of media content by interacting with the physical objects.

CROSS-REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATIONS

This application is a continuation of U.S. patent application Ser. No.16/149,478, filed Oct. 2, 2018, which is a continuation of U.S. patentapplication Ser. No. 15/011,119, filed Jan. 29, 2016, now U.S. Pat. No.10,120,437, the disclosures of which are hereby incorporated byreference herein in their entireties.

BACKGROUND

In conventional systems, users access media content by browsing orsearching a digital library of media assets. Unfortunately, this way oflocating media content is not inherently intuitive and does notcorrespond to how users organize physical objects in the physical world.

SUMMARY

Accordingly, methods and systems are described herein for a mediaguidance application that solves the aforementioned problems by allowingusers to associate media assets with physical objects in an intuitivefashion. Specifically, the media guidance application may recognizephysical objects in an augmented reality environment and allow users toidentify media assets to associate with the physical objects. Afterassociating the media asset with the physical object, the media guidanceapplication may automatically present the media asset to the user whenthe physical object is detected in the user's augmented realityenvironment. This association of media assets to physical objects allowsusers to quickly and easily access music, videos, or other media contentthat correspond to their surroundings, improving the users' overallexperiences. For example, boring and difficult tasks may become lessdraining when appropriate songs automatically play and keep usersinterested and motivated. Moreover, users may not need to endlessly lookthrough large digital playlists or divert their attention to a hand-helddevice to access desired media content.

Accordingly, the media guidance application may associate a media assetwith a physical object, and automatically present the media asset whenthe physical object is detected thereafter. For example, a user mayenter an exercise room with many objects, including an exercise bike.The media guidance application may recognize the objects in the exerciseroom through a camera on the user's augmented reality headset. Forexample, the media guidance application may recognize the exercise bikethrough the camera, when the user enters the exercise room. The mediaguidance application may receive a user input from the user identifyinga workout song to associate with the exercise bike. After associatingthe workout song with the exercise bike, the media guidance applicationmay automatically present the workout song to the user when an exercisebike is detected in the user's augmented reality environment. In anotherexample, the user may associate an input scheme with a water bottle. Forexample, the user may wish to control the music when he or she is takinga break from exercising by pausing the music while drinking water fromthe water bottle.

In another example, users may identify input schemes to associate withthe physical objects, wherein the input schemes are ways in which usersmay control presentation of media content. After associating the inputscheme with the physical object, the user may control the presentationof media content by interacting with the physical object. This providesusers with a plethora of ways to control the media content they areviewing, since there may be a different input scheme for each physicalobject and for each way a user can interact with the physical object. Inaddition, the input schemes allow users to control media contentnaturally and intuitively by interacting with physical objects insteadof devices.

In some aspects, the media guidance application may associate mediacontent with physical world objects. The media guidance application maystore a digital description of a physical object in an augmented realityenvironment of a user. For example, the media guidance application maydetect an exercise bike in a user's augmented reality environment via acamera in the user's augmented reality headset. For example, the mediaguidance application may store a digital representation of an image ofthe exercise bike in memory.

The media guidance application may receive a user input from the user,assigning a media asset to the physical object. For example, the usermay identify a workout song “Pump Up” to be associated with the exercisebike.

After receiving the user input assigning the media asset to the physicalobject, the media guidance application may detect the physical object inthe augmented reality environment by comparing digital descriptions ofphysical objects in the augmented reality environment to the digitaldescription of the physical object. For example, the media guidanceapplication may detect the exercise bike when it is present in theuser's augmented reality environment by comparing digital descriptionsof images of physical objects in the user's augmented reality with thestored digital description of the exercise bike.

In response to detecting the physical object in the augmented realityenvironment, the media guidance application may automatically cause themedia asset to be presented. For example, in response to detecting theexercise bike in the user's augmented reality environment, the mediaguidance application may automatically cause the workout song “Pump Up”to be presented to the user.

In some embodiments, the digital description of the physical object maybe created using image segmentation and edge detection on an image ofthe physical object. For example, the digital description of theexercise bike may be created by applying image segmentation and edgedetection to an image of the exercise bike.

In some embodiments, the digital description of the physical object maybe created using blob detection on an image of the physical object. Forexample, a digital description of an exercise bike may be created bydetermining different properties (e.g., brightness) between a regionconstituting an exercise bike and a region constituting the room.

In some embodiments, the digital description of the physical object maybe an alphanumeric value describing the shape and color of the physicalobject. For example, the digital description of the exercise bike may bean alphanumeric value.

In some embodiments, the augmented reality environment may be areal-world physical environment supplemented by computer-generatedsensory inputs. For example, the augmented reality environment may be anexercise room with overlaid graphics and audio. For example, the usermay perceive the augmented reality environment through a see-throughdisplay, which overlays graphics over the real world.

In some embodiments, the user initially identifies the physical objectby performing a hand gesture over the physical object. For example, theuser may point to the exercise bike, identifying it to the mediaguidance application.

In some embodiments, the user input assigning the media asset to thephysical object may be a voice input identifying the media asset. Forexample, the user may say, “Pump Up song,” identifying the workout song“Pump Up” to be associated with the exercise bike.

In some embodiments, the user input assigning the media asset to thephysical object may include hand gestures navigating to the media asset.For example, users may navigate media asset libraries presented in theaugmented reality environments by waving their hands and pointing to themedia asset listings they desire.

In some embodiments, the media guidance application may store a digitaldescription of a physical object in the augmented reality environment bycreating an object identifier associated with the physical object. Forexample, the media guidance application may create a unique identifierfor a physical object and associate the identifier with the digitaldescription of the physical object. The media guidance application maystore the object identifier and the digital description in a firstdatabase listing object identifiers, each corresponding to a digitaldescription. For example, the media guidance application may store anidentifier identifying the exercise bike and the digital description ofthe exercise bike in a first database. In some embodiments, the mediaguidance application may store a media asset identifier associated withthe media asset and the object identifier in a second database listingobject identifiers, each corresponding to a media asset. For example,the media guidance application may store a media asset identifieridentifying the workout song “Pump Up” and the object identifieridentifying the exercise bike in a second database.

In some aspects, the media guidance application may allow users tocontrol presentation of media content with physical world objects. Themedia guidance application may store a digital description of a physicalobject in an augmented reality environment of a user. For example, themedia guidance application may detect an exercise bike in a user'saugmented reality environment via a camera in the user's augmentedreality headset. For example, the media guidance application may store adigital representation of an image of the exercise bike in memory.

The media guidance application may receive a user input from the user,assigning an input scheme for controlling presentation of media contentto the physical object. For example, the user may identify an inputscheme to control the volume of media content to be associated with theexercise bike. For example, the volume of the media content may beincreased when the peddles on the exercise bike rotate faster anddecreased when the peddles on the exercise bike rotate slower.

After receiving the user input assigning the input scheme forcontrolling presentation of media content to the physical object, themedia guidance application may detect the physical object in theaugmented reality environment by comparing digital descriptions ofphysical objects in the augmented reality environment to the digitaldescription of the first object. For example, the media guidanceapplication may detect the exercise bike when it is present in theuser's augmented reality environment by comparing descriptions of imagesof physical objects in the user's augmented reality with the storeddigital description of the exercise bike.

In response to detecting the physical object in the augmented realityenvironment, the media guidance application may control presentation ofmedia content using the input scheme. For example, the user may controlthe volume of the media content by peddling faster to increase thevolume and peddling slower to decrease the volume.

In some embodiments, the user input assigning an input scheme forcontrolling presentation of media content to the physical object is acombination of a voice input identifying an attribute of thepresentation of media content to be controlled and a gesture inputidentifying the interaction with the physical object that controls theattribute. For example, the user may say, “volume,” indicating a desireto control the volume of the media content and may peddle to indicate adesire to control the volume by peddling.

In some embodiments, the input scheme for controlling presentation ofmedia content is one of a plurality of predefined input schemes, eachassociated with a physical object. For example, the media guidanceapplication may allow the user to select a predefined input scheme. Forexample, an input scheme for controlling the volume using an exercisebike may be predefined and the user may select it.

It should be noted that the systems and/or methods described above maybe applied to, or used in accordance with, other systems, methods and/orapparatuses.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

The above and other objects and advantages of the disclosure will beapparent upon consideration of the following detailed description, takenin conjunction with the accompanying drawings, in which like referencecharacters refer to like parts throughout, and in which:

FIG. 1 shows an illustrative example of a user associating media contentwith a physical object in an augmented reality environment in accordancewith some embodiments of the disclosure;

FIG. 2 shows an illustrative example of an augmented reality environmentin accordance with some embodiments of the disclosure;

FIG. 3 shows an illustrative media listing display in accordance withsome embodiments of the disclosure;

FIG. 4 shows another illustrative media listing display in accordancewith some embodiments of the disclosure;

FIG. 5 is a block diagram of an illustrative user equipment device inaccordance with some embodiments of the disclosure;

FIG. 6 is a block diagram of an illustrative media system in accordancewith some embodiments of the disclosure;

FIG. 7 is a flowchart of illustrative steps for associating a mediaasset with a physical object and automatically presenting the mediaasset when the physical object is detected in accordance with someembodiments of the disclosure;

FIG. 8 is a flowchart of illustrative steps for associating an inputscheme with a physical object and allowing a user to controlpresentation of media content with the physical object in accordancewith some embodiments of the disclosure;

FIG. 9 is a flowchart of illustrative steps for identifying a physicalobject in an augmented reality environment in accordance with someembodiments of the disclosure; and

FIG. 10 is an illustrative example of pseudocode for identifying aphysical object in an augmented reality environment in accordance withsome embodiments of the disclosure.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

Methods and systems are described herein for a media guidanceapplication that allows users to associate media assets with physicalobjects in an augmented reality environment. Specifically, the mediaguidance application may recognize physical objects in an augmentedreality environment and allow users to identify media assets toassociate with the physical objects. Moreover, users may identify inputschemes to associate with the physical objects, wherein the inputschemes are ways in which users may control presentation of mediacontent.

For example, the media guidance application may recognize a physicalobject in a user's augmented reality environment and allow the user toassociate a media asset with the physical object. After associating themedia asset with the physical object, the media guidance application mayautomatically present the media asset to the user when the physicalobject is detected in the user's augmented reality environment. Forexample, by associating media assets with physical objects, the mediaguidance application may automatically present users with the mediaassets they desire while the users are in the appropriate augmentedreality environment. In another example, the media guidance applicationmay recognize a physical object in a user's augmented realityenvironment and allow the user to associate an input scheme with thephysical object. After associating the input scheme with the physicalobject, the user may control the presentation of media content by usingthe physical object as a controller.

Accordingly, the media guidance application may associate a media assetwith a physical object, and automatically present the media asset whenthe physical object is detected thereafter. For example, the mediaguidance application may recognize an exercise bike in a user'saugmented reality environment, when the user enters an exercise room.The media guidance application may receive a user input from the useridentifying a workout song to associate with the exercise bike. Afterassociating the workout song with the exercise bike, the media guidanceapplication may automatically present the workout song to the user whenan exercise bike is detected in the user's augmented realityenvironment. In another example, the user may associate an input schemewith the exercise bike. For example, the user may wish to control thevolume of the music he or she is listening to by peddling faster toincrease the volume and peddling slower to decrease the volume.

As referred to herein, the term “physical object” refers to any objectthat exists in the real physical world. For example, a physical objectmay be an object in a user's physical environment. For example, aphysical object may be an exercise bike, a yoga mat, or a pair ofdumbbells.

As referred to herein, the term “computer-generated sensory input”refers to any sensory input that has been created in whole or in partwith the aid of computer software or hardware. For example, acomputer-generated sensory input may be a sound, video, or graphic thatis created by a computer. For example, a computer-generated sensoryinput may be a menu that is displayed by a computer (e.g., menu 202(FIG. 2)).

As referred to herein, the term “augmented reality environment” refersto a live real-world environment that is augmented by acomputer-generated sensory input. For example, an augmented realityenvironment may be a live real-world environment with computer-generatedgraphics, computer-generated audio, or computer-generated video overlaidon the real-world environment. For example, an augmented realityenvironment may be a real exercise room that is seen through asee-through display, on which digital graphics can be presented andoverlaid on the physical world. In another example, an augmented realityenvironment may be a display with a live video stream of a real-worldenvironment overlaid with graphics, audio, or video. For example, a usermay perceive the augmented reality environment on a mobile device thatuses a camera input to display the user's environment and overlays avideo over the camera input.

As referred to herein, the term “digital description” refers to adigital representation of physical objects. For example, a digitaldescription may be a textual description describing details of theobject in words, a mathematical description describing the object'sshape, size, and/or color, or a combination. For example, the digitaldescription of an exercise bike may be vectors defining the edges in animage of the bike. In another example, the digital description mayinclude the color, shape, and size of the exercise bike.

As referred to herein, the term “input scheme” is an association betweena way to input data and controlling an attribute. For example, an inputscheme may be an action or motion used to control presentation of mediacontent. For example, an input scheme may include unrolling a yoga matas a way to input data, and playback speed of media content as theattribute to be controlled by unrolling the yoga mat. In anotherexample, an input scheme may include peddling an exercise bike as theway to input data, and volume of media content as the attribute to becontrolled by peddling.

As referred to herein, the term “object identifier” is anything thatidentifies a physical object. For example, an identifier may be a name,a description, or a digital representation of a physical object. Forexample, an object identifier may be a string, number, or a combinationof both. An object identifier may identify a single physical object,such as a sculpture or a work of art, or an object identifier mayidentify a group of similar objects, such as different exercise bikes.For example, an object identifier of an exercise bike may be a uniqueidentifier identifying exercise bikes. For example, the objectidentifier of the exercise bike may be the string “exercise bike.” Anobject identifier may be distinct for similar objects of differentbrands. For example, the object identifier of an exercise bike of brandA may be different from the object identifier of an exercise bike ofbrand B. In another example, the object identifier may be a uniquealphanumeric value generated for each new object that is detected.

The amount of content available to users in any given content deliverysystem can be substantial. Consequently, many users desire a form ofmedia guidance through an interface that allows users to efficientlynavigate content selections and easily identify content that they maydesire. An application that provides such guidance is referred to hereinas an interactive media guidance application or, sometimes, a mediaguidance application or a guidance application.

Interactive media guidance applications may take various forms dependingon the content for which they provide guidance. One typical type ofmedia guidance application is an interactive television program guide.Interactive television program guides (sometimes referred to aselectronic program guides) are well-known guidance applications that,among other things, allow users to navigate among and locate many typesof content or media assets. Interactive media guidance applications maygenerate graphical user interface screens that enable a user to navigateamong, locate and select content. As referred to herein, the terms“media asset” and “content” should be understood to mean anelectronically consumable user asset, such as television programming, aswell as pay-per-view programs, on-demand programs (as in video-on-demand(VOD) systems), Internet content (e.g., streaming content, downloadablecontent, Webcasts, etc.), video clips, audio, content information,pictures, rotating images, documents, playlists, websites, articles,books, electronic books, blogs, chat sessions, social media,applications, games, and/or any other media or multimedia and/orcombination of the same. Guidance applications also allow users tonavigate among and locate content. As referred to herein, the term“multimedia” should be understood to mean content that utilizes at leasttwo different content forms described above, for example, text, audio,images, video, or interactivity content forms. Content may be recorded,played, displayed or accessed by user equipment devices, but can also bepart of a live performance.

The media guidance application and/or any instructions for performingany of the embodiments discussed herein may be encoded on computerreadable media. Computer readable media includes any media capable ofstoring data. The computer readable media may be transitory, including,but not limited to, propagating electrical or electromagnetic signals,or may be non-transitory including, but not limited to, volatile andnon-volatile computer memory or storage devices such as a hard disk,floppy disk, USB drive, DVD, CD, media cards, register memory, processorcaches, Random Access Memory (“RAM”), etc.

With the advent of the Internet, mobile computing, and high-speedwireless networks, users are accessing media on user equipment deviceson which they traditionally did not. As referred to herein, the phrase“user equipment device,” “user equipment,” “user device,” “electronicdevice,” “electronic equipment,” “media equipment device,” or “mediadevice” should be understood to mean any device for accessing thecontent described above, such as a television, a Smart TV, a set-topbox, an integrated receiver decoder (IRD) for handling satellitetelevision, a digital storage device, a digital media receiver (DMR), adigital media adapter (DMA), a streaming media device, a DVD player, aDVD recorder, a connected DVD, a local media server, a BLU-RAY player, aBLU-RAY recorder, a personal computer (PC), a laptop computer, a tabletcomputer, a WebTV box, a personal computer television (PC/TV), a PCmedia server, a PC media center, a hand-held computer, a stationarytelephone, a personal digital assistant (PDA), a mobile telephone, aportable video player, a portable music player, a portable gamingmachine, a smart phone, or any other television equipment, computingequipment, or wireless device, and/or combination of the same. In someembodiments, the user equipment device may have a front facing screenand a rear facing screen, multiple front screens, or multiple angledscreens. In some embodiments, the user equipment device may have a frontfacing camera and/or a rear facing camera. On these user equipmentdevices, users may be able to navigate among and locate the same contentavailable through a television. Consequently, media guidance may beavailable on these devices, as well. The guidance provided may be forcontent available only through a television, for content available onlythrough one or more of other types of user equipment devices, or forcontent available both through a television and one or more of the othertypes of user equipment devices. The media guidance applications may beprovided as on-line applications (i.e., provided on a web-site), or asstand-alone applications or clients on user equipment devices. Variousdevices and platforms that may implement media guidance applications aredescribed in more detail below.

One of the functions of the media guidance application is to providemedia guidance data to users. As referred to herein, the phrase “mediaguidance data” or “guidance data” should be understood to mean any datarelated to content or data used in operating the guidance application.For example, the guidance data may include program information, guidanceapplication settings, user preferences, user profile information, medialistings, media-related information (e.g., broadcast times, broadcastchannels, titles, descriptions, ratings information (e.g., parentalcontrol ratings, critic's ratings, etc.), genre or category information,actor information, logo data for broadcasters' or providers' logos,etc.), media format (e.g., standard definition, high definition, 3D,etc.), on-demand information, blogs, websites, and any other type ofguidance data that is helpful for a user to navigate among and locatedesired content selections.

FIG. 1 shows an illustrative example of a user associating media contentwith a physical object in an augmented reality environment. The user inFIG. 1 is wearing an augmented reality headset 102 that allows the userto perceive the augmented reality environment through a see-throughdisplay. The augmented reality headset 102 also includes a camera fromwhich the media guidance application may get a video stream of theuser's environment to detect objects. The media guidance application maycontinuously detect all objects in the video stream of the user'senvironment. When the user enters the exercise room and looks at anexercise bike 106 with the augmented reality headset, the media guidanceapplication detects the exercise bike 106. The user points at theexercise bike 106. When the media guidance application detects theuser's hand pointing at the exercise bike 106, it stores a digitaldescription of the exercise bike 106. In some embodiments, the mediaguidance application stores digital descriptions for all objects itdetects in the video stream of the user's environment. In someembodiments, the media guidance application may store the digitaldescription in storage (e.g., storage 508 (FIG. 5)) on the device localto the user. In some embodiments, the media guidance application maystore the digital description in storage on a server (e.g., mediaguidance data source 618 (FIG. 6)).

FIG. 2 shows an illustrative display that may be used to provide mediaguidance in an augmented reality environment. Display 200 is an exampleof what the user in FIG. 1 sees through the augmented reality headsetafter the user points to the exercise bike and the media guidanceapplication stores a digital description of the exercise bike. The usersees physical objects such as the exercise bike 204 as well ascomputer-generated sensory inputs such as the overlaid digital menu 202.The overlaid digital menu allows the user to choose media content likemusic, movies, books, etc. In some embodiments, the augmented realityenvironment includes a headset, and the user may identify a media assetby pointing to where the media asset appears in the augmented realityenvironment. For example, a user may point at the area on which a mediaasset in the digital menu is overlaid. In some embodiments, the user mayidentify a media asset by navigating to it and selecting it, using auser input device such as a remote. For example, the augmented realityenvironment may include a mobile device displaying a live video streamof the real-world environment overlaid with graphics, audio, and/orvideo on the display. The user may identify a media asset by selectingit, using the inputs of the mobile device. For example, the user maytouch the media asset to select it.

FIGS. 3-4 show illustrative display screens that may be used to providemedia guidance data. The display screens shown in FIGS. 3-4 may beimplemented on any suitable user equipment device or platform. While thedisplays of FIGS. 3-4 are illustrated as full screen displays, they mayalso be fully or partially overlaid over content being displayed. A usermay indicate a desire to access content information by selecting aselectable option provided in a display screen (e.g., a menu option, alistings option, an icon, a hyperlink, etc.) or pressing a dedicatedbutton (e.g., a GUIDE button) on a remote control or other user inputinterface or device. In response to the user's indication, the mediaguidance application may provide a display screen with media guidancedata organized in one of several ways, such as by time and channel in agrid, by time, by channel, by source, by content type, by category(e.g., movies, sports, news, children, or other categories ofprogramming), or other predefined, user-defined, or other organizationcriteria.

FIG. 3 shows illustrative grid of a program listings display 300arranged by time and channel that also enables access to different typesof content in a single display. Display 300 may include grid 302 with:

(1) a column of channel/content type identifiers 304, where eachchannel/content type identifier (which is a cell in the column)identifies a different channel or content type available; and (2) a rowof time identifiers 306, where each time identifier (which is a cell inthe row) identifies a time block of programming. Grid 302 also includescells of program listings, such as program listing 308, where eachlisting provides the title of the program provided on the listing'sassociated channel and time. With a user input device, a user can selectprogram listings by moving highlight region 310. Information relating tothe program listing selected by highlight region 310 may be provided inprogram information region 312. Region 312 may include, for example, theprogram title, the program description, the time the program is provided(if applicable), the channel the program is on (if applicable), theprogram's rating, and other desired information.

In addition to providing access to linear programming (e.g., contentthat is scheduled to be transmitted to a plurality of user equipmentdevices at a predetermined time and is provided according to aschedule), the media guidance application also provides access tonon-linear programming (e.g., content accessible to a user equipmentdevice at any time and is not provided according to a schedule).Non-linear programming may include content from different contentsources including on-demand content (e.g., VOD), Internet content (e.g.,streaming media, downloadable media, etc.), locally stored content(e.g., content stored on any user equipment device described above orother storage device), or other time-independent content. On-demandcontent may include movies or any other content provided by a particularcontent provider (e.g., HBO On Demand providing “The Sopranos” and “CurbYour Enthusiasm”). HBO ON DEMAND is a service mark owned by Time WarnerCompany L.P. et al. and THE SOPRANOS and CURB YOUR ENTHUSIASM aretrademarks owned by the Home Box Office, Inc. Internet content mayinclude web events, such as a chat session or Webcast, or contentavailable on-demand as streaming content or downloadable content throughan Internet web site or other Internet access (e.g. FTP).

Grid 302 may provide media guidance data for non-linear programmingincluding on-demand listing 314, recorded content listing 316, andInternet content listing 318. A display combining media guidance datafor content from different types of content sources is sometimesreferred to as a “mixed-media” display. Various permutations of thetypes of media guidance data that may be displayed that are differentthan display 300 may be based on user selection or guidance applicationdefinition (e.g., a display of only recorded and broadcast listings,only on-demand and broadcast listings, etc.). As illustrated, listings314, 316, and 318 are shown as spanning the entire time block displayedin grid 302 to indicate that selection of these listings may provideaccess to a display dedicated to on-demand listings, recorded listings,or Internet listings, respectively. In some embodiments, listings forthese content types may be included directly in grid 302. Additionalmedia guidance data may be displayed in response to the user selectingone of the navigational icons 320. (Pressing an arrow key on a userinput device may affect the display in a similar manner as selectingnavigational icons 320.)

Display 300 may also include video region 322, and options region 326.Video region 322 may allow the user to view and/or preview programs thatare currently available, will be available, or were available to theuser. The content of video region 322 may correspond to, or beindependent from, one of the listings displayed in grid 302. Griddisplays including a video region are sometimes referred to aspicture-in-guide (PIG) displays. PIG displays and their functionalitiesare described in greater detail in Satterfield et al. U.S. Pat. No.6,564,378, issued May 13, 2003 and Yuen et al. U.S. Pat. No. 6,239,794,issued May 29, 2001, which are hereby incorporated by reference hereinin their entireties. PIG displays may be included in other mediaguidance application display screens of the embodiments describedherein.

Options region 326 may allow the user to access different types ofcontent, media guidance application displays, and/or media guidanceapplication features. Options region 326 may be part of display 300 (andother display screens described herein), or may be invoked by a user byselecting an on-screen option or pressing a dedicated or assignablebutton on a user input device. The selectable options within optionsregion 326 may concern features related to program listings in grid 302or may include options available from a main menu display. Featuresrelated to program listings may include searching for other air times orways of receiving a program, recording a program, enabling seriesrecording of a program, setting program and/or channel as a favorite,purchasing a program, or other features. Options available from a mainmenu display may include search options, VOD options, parental controloptions, Internet options, cloud-based options, device synchronizationoptions, second screen device options, options to access various typesof media guidance data displays, options to subscribe to a premiumservice, options to edit a user's profile, options to access a browseoverlay, or other options.

The media guidance application may be personalized based on a user'spreferences. A personalized media guidance application allows a user tocustomize displays and features to create a personalized “experience”with the media guidance application. This personalized experience may becreated by allowing a user to input these customizations and/or by themedia guidance application monitoring user activity to determine varioususer preferences. Users may access their personalized guidanceapplication by logging in or otherwise identifying themselves to theguidance application. Customization of the media guidance applicationmay be made in accordance with a user profile. The customizations mayinclude varying presentation schemes (e.g., color scheme of displays,font size of text, etc.), aspects of content listings displayed (e.g.,only HDTV or only 3D programming, user-specified broadcast channelsbased on favorite channel selections, re-ordering the display ofchannels, recommended content, etc.), desired recording features (e.g.,recording or series recordings for particular users, recording quality,etc.), parental control settings, customized presentation of Internetcontent (e.g., presentation of social media content, e-mail,electronically delivered articles, etc.) and other desiredcustomizations.

The media guidance application may allow a user to provide user profileinformation or may automatically compile user profile information. Themedia guidance application may, for example, monitor the content theuser accesses and/or other interactions the user may have with theguidance application. Additionally, the media guidance application mayobtain all or part of other user profiles that are related to aparticular user (e.g., from other web sites on the Internet the useraccesses, such as www.allrovi.com, from other media guidanceapplications the user accesses, from other interactive applications theuser accesses, from another user equipment device of the user, etc.),and/or obtain information about the user from other sources that themedia guidance application may access. As a result, a user can beprovided with a unified guidance application experience across theuser's different user equipment devices. This type of user experience isdescribed in greater detail below in connection with FIG. 6. Additionalpersonalized media guidance application features are described ingreater detail in Ellis et al., U.S. Patent Application Publication No.2005/0251827, filed Jul. 11, 2005, Boyer et al., U.S. Pat. No.7,165,098, issued Jan. 16, 2007, and Ellis et al., U.S. PatentApplication Publication No. 2002/0174430, filed Feb. 21, 2002, which arehereby incorporated by reference herein in their entireties.

Another display arrangement for providing media guidance is shown inFIG. 4. Video mosaic display 400 includes selectable options 402 forcontent information organized based on content type, genre, and/or otherorganization criteria. In display 400, television listings option 404 isselected, thus providing listings 406, 408, 410, and 412 as broadcastprogram listings. In display 400 the listings may provide graphicalimages including cover art, still images from the content, video clippreviews, live video from the content, or other types of content thatindicate to a user the content being described by the media guidancedata in the listing. Each of the graphical listings may also beaccompanied by text to provide further information about the contentassociated with the listing. For example, listing 408 may include morethan one portion, including media portion 414 and text portion 416.Media portion 414 and/or text portion 416 may be selectable to viewcontent in full-screen or to view information related to the contentdisplayed in media portion 414 (e.g., to view listings for the channelthat the video is displayed on).

The listings in display 400 are of different sizes (i.e., listing 406 islarger than listings 408, 410, and 412), but if desired, all thelistings may be the same size. Listings may be of different sizes orgraphically accentuated to indicate degrees of interest to the user orto emphasize certain content, as desired by the content provider orbased on user preferences. Various systems and methods for graphicallyaccentuating content listings are discussed in, for example, Yates, U.S.Patent Application Publication No. 2010/0153885, filed Nov. 12, 2009,which is hereby incorporated by reference herein in its entirety.

Users may access content and the media guidance application (and itsdisplay screens described above and below) from one or more of theiruser equipment devices. FIG. 5 shows a generalized embodiment ofillustrative user equipment device 500. More specific implementations ofuser equipment devices are discussed below in connection with FIG. 6.User equipment device 500 may receive content and data via input/output(hereinafter “I/O”) path 502. I/O path 502 may provide content (e.g.,broadcast programming, on-demand programming, Internet content, contentavailable over a local area network (LAN) or wide area network (WAN),and/or other content) and data to control circuitry 504, which includesprocessing circuitry 506 and storage 508. Control circuitry 504 may beused to send and receive commands, requests, and other suitable datausing I/O path 502. I/O path 502 may connect control circuitry 504 (andspecifically processing circuitry 506) to one or more communicationspaths (described below). I/O functions may be provided by one or more ofthese communications paths, but are shown as a single path in FIG. 5 toavoid overcomplicating the drawing.

Control circuitry 504 may be based on any suitable processing circuitrysuch as processing circuitry 506. As referred to herein, processingcircuitry should be understood to mean circuitry based on one or moremicroprocessors, microcontrollers, digital signal processors,programmable logic devices, field-programmable gate arrays (FPGAs),application-specific integrated circuits (ASICs), etc., and may includea multi-core processor (e.g., dual-core, quad-core, hexa-core, or anysuitable number of cores) or supercomputer. In some embodiments,processing circuitry may be distributed across multiple separateprocessors or processing units, for example, multiple of the same typeof processing units (e.g., two Intel Core i7 processors) or multipledifferent processors (e.g., an Intel Core i5 processor and an Intel Corei7 processor). In some embodiments, control circuitry 504 executesinstructions for a media guidance application stored in memory (i.e.,storage 508). Specifically, control circuitry 504 may be instructed bythe media guidance application to perform the functions discussed aboveand below. For example, the media guidance application may provideinstructions to control circuitry 504 to generate the media guidancedisplays. In some implementations, any action performed by controlcircuitry 504 may be based on instructions received from the mediaguidance application.

In client-server based embodiments, control circuitry 504 may includecommunications circuitry suitable for communicating with a guidanceapplication server or other networks or servers. The instructions forcarrying out the above mentioned functionality may be stored on theguidance application server. Communications circuitry may include acable modem, an integrated services digital network (ISDN) modem, adigital subscriber line (DSL) modem, a telephone modem, Ethernet card,or a wireless modem for communications with other equipment, or anyother suitable communications circuitry. Such communications may involvethe Internet or any other suitable communications networks or paths(which is described in more detail in connection with FIG. 6). Inaddition, communications circuitry may include circuitry that enablespeer-to-peer communication of user equipment devices, or communicationof user equipment devices in locations remote from each other (describedin more detail below).

Memory may be an electronic storage device provided as storage 508 thatis part of control circuitry 504. As referred to herein, the phrase“electronic storage device” or “storage device” should be understood tomean any device for storing electronic data, computer software, orfirmware, such as random-access memory, read-only memory, hard drives,optical drives, digital video disc (DVD) recorders, compact disc (CD)recorders, BLU-RAY disc (BD) recorders, BLU-RAY 3D disc recorders,digital video recorders (DVR, sometimes called a personal videorecorder, or PVR), solid state devices, quantum storage devices, gamingconsoles, gaming media, or any other suitable fixed or removable storagedevices, and/or any combination of the same. Storage 508 may be used tostore various types of content described herein as well as mediaguidance data described above. Nonvolatile memory may also be used(e.g., to launch a boot-up routine and other instructions). Cloud-basedstorage, described in relation to FIG. 6, may be used to supplementstorage 508 or instead of storage 508.

Control circuitry 504 may include video generating circuitry and tuningcircuitry, such as one or more analog tuners, one or more MPEG-2decoders or other digital decoding circuitry, high-definition tuners, orany other suitable tuning or video circuits or combinations of suchcircuits. Encoding circuitry (e.g., for converting over-the-air, analog,or digital signals to MPEG signals for storage) may also be provided.Control circuitry 504 may also include scaler circuitry for upconvertingand downconverting content into the preferred output format of the userequipment 500. Circuitry 504 may also include digital-to-analogconverter circuitry and analog-to-digital converter circuitry forconverting between digital and analog signals. The tuning and encodingcircuitry may be used by the user equipment device to receive and todisplay, to play, or to record content. The tuning and encodingcircuitry may also be used to receive guidance data. The circuitrydescribed herein, including for example, the tuning, video generating,encoding, decoding, encrypting, decrypting, scaler, and analog/digitalcircuitry, may be implemented using software running on one or moregeneral purpose or specialized processors. Multiple tuners may beprovided to handle simultaneous tuning functions (e.g., watch and recordfunctions, picture-in-picture (PIP) functions, multiple-tuner recording,etc.). If storage 508 is provided as a separate device from userequipment 500, the tuning and encoding circuitry (including multipletuners) may be associated with storage 508.

A user may send instructions to control circuitry 504 using user inputinterface 510. User input interface 510 may be any suitable userinterface, such as a remote control, camera, motion detector, mouse,trackball, keypad, keyboard, touch screen, touchpad, stylus input,joystick, voice recognition interface, or other user input interfaces.Display 512 may be provided as a stand-alone device or integrated withother elements of user equipment device 500. For example, display 512may be a touchscreen or touch-sensitive display. In such circumstances,user input interface 510 may be integrated with or combined with display512. Display 512 may be one or more of a see-through display, a heads-updisplay, a transparent display, a monitor, a television, a liquidcrystal display (LCD) for a mobile device, amorphous silicon display,low temperature poly silicon display, electronic ink display,electrophoretic display, active matrix display, electro-wetting display,electrofluidic display, cathode ray tube display, light-emitting diodedisplay, electroluminescent display, plasma display panel,high-performance addressing display, thin-film transistor display,organic light-emitting diode display, surface-conductionelectron-emitter display (SED), laser television, carbon nanotubes,quantum dot display, interferometric modulator display, or any othersuitable equipment for displaying visual images. In some embodiments,display 512 may be HDTV-capable. In some embodiments, display 512 may bea 3D display, and the interactive media guidance application and anysuitable content may be displayed in 3D. A video card or graphics cardmay generate the output to the display 512. The video card may offervarious functions such as accelerated rendering of 3D scenes and 2Dgraphics, MPEG-2/MPEG-4 decoding, TV output, or the ability to connectmultiple monitors. The video card may be any processing circuitrydescribed above in relation to control circuitry 504. The video card maybe integrated with the control circuitry 504. Speakers 514 may beprovided as integrated with other elements of user equipment device 500or may be stand-alone units. The audio component of videos and othercontent displayed on display 512 may be played through speakers 514. Insome embodiments, the audio may be distributed to a receiver (notshown), which processes and outputs the audio via speakers 514.

The guidance application may be implemented using any suitablearchitecture. For example, it may be a stand-alone applicationwholly-implemented on user equipment device 500. In such an approach,instructions of the application are stored locally (e.g., in storage508), and data for use by the application is downloaded on a periodicbasis (e.g., from an out-of-band feed, from an Internet resource, orusing another suitable approach). Control circuitry 504 may retrieveinstructions of the application from storage 508 and process theinstructions to generate any of the displays discussed herein. Based onthe processed instructions, control circuitry 504 may determine whataction to perform when input is received from input interface 510. Forexample, movement of a cursor on a display up/down may be indicated bythe processed instructions when input interface 510 indicates that anup/down button was selected.

In some embodiments, the media guidance application is a client-serverbased application. Data for use by a thick or thin client implemented onuser equipment device 500 is retrieved on-demand by issuing requests toa server remote to the user equipment device 500. In one example of aclient-server based guidance application, control circuitry 504 runs aweb browser that interprets web pages provided by a remote server. Forexample, the remote server may store the instructions for theapplication in a storage device. The remote server may process thestored instructions using circuitry (e.g., control circuitry 504) andgenerate the displays discussed above and below. The client device mayreceive the displays generated by the remote server and may display thecontent of the displays locally on equipment device 500. This way, theprocessing of the instructions is performed remotely by the server whilethe resulting displays are provided locally on equipment device 500.Equipment device 500 may receive inputs from the user via inputinterface 510 and transmit those inputs to the remote server forprocessing and generating the corresponding displays. For example,equipment device 500 may transmit a communication to the remote serverindicating that an up/down button was selected via input interface 510.The remote server may process instructions in accordance with that inputand generate a display of the application corresponding to the input(e.g., a display that moves a cursor up/down). The generated display isthen transmitted to equipment device 500 for presentation to the user.

In some embodiments, the media guidance application is downloaded andinterpreted or otherwise run by an interpreter or virtual machine (runby control circuitry 504). In some embodiments, the guidance applicationmay be encoded in the ETV Binary Interchange Format (EBIF), received bycontrol circuitry 504 as part of a suitable feed, and interpreted by auser agent running on control circuitry 504. For example, the guidanceapplication may be an EBIF application. In some embodiments, theguidance application may be defined by a series of JAVA-based files thatare received and run by a local virtual machine or other suitablemiddleware executed by control circuitry 504. In some of suchembodiments (e.g., those employing MPEG-2 or other digital mediaencoding schemes), the guidance application may be, for example, encodedand transmitted in an MPEG-2 object carousel with the MPEG audio andvideo packets of a program.

User equipment device 500 of FIG. 5 can be implemented in system 600 ofFIG. 6 as user television equipment 602, user computer equipment 604,wireless user communications device 606, or any other type of userequipment suitable for accessing content, such as a non-portable gamingmachine. For simplicity, these devices may be referred to hereincollectively as user equipment or user equipment devices, and may besubstantially similar to user equipment devices described above. Userequipment devices, on which a media guidance application may beimplemented, may function as a standalone device or may be part of anetwork of devices. Various network configurations of devices may beimplemented and are discussed in more detail below.

A user equipment device utilizing at least some of the system featuresdescribed above in connection with FIG. 5 may not be classified solelyas user television equipment 602, user computer equipment 604, or awireless user communications device 606. For example, user televisionequipment 602 may, like some user computer equipment 604, beInternet-enabled allowing for access to Internet content, while usercomputer equipment 604 may, like some television equipment 602, includea tuner allowing for access to television programming. The mediaguidance application may have the same layout on various different typesof user equipment or may be tailored to the display capabilities of theuser equipment. For example, on user computer equipment 604, theguidance application may be provided as a web site accessed by a webbrowser. In another example, the guidance application may be scaled downfor wireless user communications devices 606.

In system 600, there is typically more than one of each type of userequipment device but only one of each is shown in FIG. 6 to avoidovercomplicating the drawing. In addition, each user may utilize morethan one type of user equipment device and also more than one of eachtype of user equipment device.

In some embodiments, a user equipment device (e.g., user televisionequipment 602, user computer equipment 604, wireless user communicationsdevice 606) may be a wearable electronic device. As referred to herein,a “wearable electronic device” is any clothing or accessory thatincorporates computer hardware. For example, wearable electronic devicesmay be computer glasses, smart watches, or any other clothing oraccessory with embedded circuitry. For example, a wearable electronicdevice may be an augmented reality headset as glasses with a see-throughdisplay in the lenses and a camera on the frame.

In some embodiments, a user equipment device (e.g., user televisionequipment 602, user computer equipment 604, wireless user communicationsdevice 606) may be referred to as a “second screen device.” For example,a second screen device may supplement content presented on a first userequipment device. The content presented on the second screen device maybe any suitable content that supplements the content presented on thefirst device. In some embodiments, the second screen device provides aninterface for adjusting settings and display preferences of the firstdevice. In some embodiments, the second screen device is configured forinteracting with other second screen devices or for interacting with asocial network. The second screen device can be located in the same roomas the first device, a different room from the first device but in thesame house or building, or in a different building from the firstdevice.

The user may also set various settings to maintain consistent mediaguidance application settings across in-home devices and remote devices.Settings include those described herein, as well as channel and programfavorites, programming preferences that the guidance applicationutilizes to make programming recommendations, display preferences, andother desirable guidance settings. For example, if a user sets a channelas a favorite on, for example, the web site www.allrovi.com on theirpersonal computer at their office, the same channel would appear as afavorite on the user's in-home devices (e.g., user television equipmentand user computer equipment) as well as the user's mobile devices, ifdesired. Therefore, changes made on one user equipment device can changethe guidance experience on another user equipment device, regardless ofwhether they are the same or a different type of user equipment device.In addition, the changes made may be based on settings input by a user,as well as user activity monitored by the guidance application.

The user equipment devices may be coupled to communications network 614.Namely, user television equipment 602, user computer equipment 604, andwireless user communications device 606 are coupled to communicationsnetwork 614 via communications paths 608, 610, and 612, respectively.Communications network 614 may be one or more networks including theInternet, a mobile phone network, mobile voice or data network (e.g., a4G or LTE network), cable network, public switched telephone network, orother types of communications network or combinations of communicationsnetworks. Paths 608, 610, and 612 may separately or together include oneor more communications paths, such as, a satellite path, a fiber-opticpath, a cable path, a path that supports Internet communications (e.g.,IPTV), free-space connections (e.g., for broadcast or other wirelesssignals), or any other suitable wired or wireless communications path orcombination of such paths. Path 612 is drawn with dotted lines toindicate that in the exemplary embodiment shown in FIG. 6 it is awireless path and paths 608 and 610 are drawn as solid lines to indicatethey are wired paths (although these paths may be wireless paths, ifdesired).

Communications with the user equipment devices may be provided by one ormore of these communications paths, but are shown as a single path inFIG. 6 to avoid overcomplicating the drawing.

Although communications paths are not drawn between user equipmentdevices, these devices may communicate directly with each other viacommunication paths, such as those described above in connection withpaths 608, 610, and 612, as well as other short-range point-to-pointcommunication paths, such as USB cables, IEEE 1394 cables, wirelesspaths (e.g., Bluetooth, infrared, IEEE 802-11x, etc.), or othershort-range communication via wired or wireless paths. BLUETOOTH is acertification mark owned by Bluetooth SIG, INC. The user equipmentdevices may also communicate with each other directly through anindirect path via communications network 614.

System 600 includes content source 616 and media guidance data source618 coupled to communications network 614 via communication paths 620and 622, respectively. Paths 620 and 622 may include any of thecommunication paths described above in connection with paths 608, 610,and 612.

Communications with the content source 616 and media guidance datasource 618 may be exchanged over one or more communications paths, butare shown as a single path in FIG. 6 to avoid overcomplicating thedrawing. In addition, there may be more than one of each of contentsource 616 and media guidance data source 618, but only one of each isshown in FIG. 6 to avoid overcomplicating the drawing. (The differenttypes of each of these sources are discussed below.) If desired, contentsource 616 and media guidance data source 618 may be integrated as onesource device. Although communications between sources 616 and 618 withuser equipment devices 602, 604, and 606 are shown as throughcommunications network 614, in some embodiments, sources 616 and 618 maycommunicate directly with user equipment devices 602, 604, and 606 viacommunication paths (not shown) such as those described above inconnection with paths 608, 610, and 612.

Content source 616 may include one or more types of content distributionequipment including a television distribution facility, cable systemheadend, satellite distribution facility, programming sources (e.g.,television broadcasters, such as NBC, ABC, HBO, etc.), intermediatedistribution facilities and/or servers, Internet providers, on-demandmedia servers, and other content providers. NBC is a trademark owned bythe National Broadcasting Company, Inc., ABC is a trademark owned by theAmerican Broadcasting Company, Inc., and HBO is a trademark owned by theHome Box Office, Inc. Content source 616 may be the originator ofcontent (e.g., a television broadcaster, a Webcast provider, etc.) ormay not be the originator of content (e.g., an on-demand contentprovider, an Internet provider of content of broadcast programs fordownloading, etc.). Content source 616 may include cable sources,satellite providers, on-demand providers, Internet providers,over-the-top content providers, or other providers of content. Contentsource 616 may also include a remote media server used to storedifferent types of content (including video content selected by a user),in a location remote from any of the user equipment devices. Systems andmethods for remote storage of content, and providing remotely storedcontent to user equipment are discussed in greater detail in connectionwith Ellis et al., U.S. Pat. No. 7,761,892, issued Jul. 20, 2010, whichis hereby incorporated by reference herein in its entirety.

Media guidance data source 618 may provide media guidance data, such asthe media guidance data described above. Media guidance data may beprovided to the user equipment devices using any suitable approach. Insome embodiments, the guidance application may be a stand-aloneinteractive television program guide that receives program guide datavia a data feed (e.g., a continuous feed or trickle feed). Programschedule data and other guidance data may be provided to the userequipment on a television channel sideband, using an in-band digitalsignal, using an out-of-band digital signal, or by any other suitabledata transmission technique. Program schedule data and other mediaguidance data may be provided to user equipment on multiple analog ordigital television channels.

In some embodiments, guidance data from media guidance data source 618may be provided to users' equipment using a client-server approach. Forexample, a user equipment device may pull media guidance data from aserver, or a server may push media guidance data to a user equipmentdevice. In some embodiments, a guidance application client residing onthe user's equipment may initiate sessions with source 618 to obtainguidance data when needed, e.g., when the guidance data is out of dateor when the user equipment device receives a request from the user toreceive data. Media guidance may be provided to the user equipment withany suitable frequency (e.g., continuously, daily, a user-specifiedperiod of time, a system-specified period of time, in response to arequest from user equipment, etc.). Media guidance data source 618 mayprovide user equipment devices 602, 604, and 606 the media guidanceapplication itself or software updates for the media guidanceapplication.

In some embodiments, the media guidance data may include viewer data.For example, the viewer data may include current and/or historical useractivity information (e.g., what content the user typically watches,what times of day the user watches content, whether the user interactswith a social network, at what times the user interacts with a socialnetwork to post information, what types of content the user typicallywatches (e.g., pay TV or free TV), mood, brain activity information,etc.). The media guidance data may also include subscription data. Forexample, the subscription data may identify to which sources or servicesa given user subscribes and/or to which sources or services the givenuser has previously subscribed but later terminated access (e.g.,whether the user subscribes to premium channels, whether the user hasadded a premium level of services, whether the user has increasedInternet speed). In some embodiments, the viewer data and/or thesubscription data may identify patterns of a given user for a period ofmore than one year. The media guidance data may include a model (e.g., asurvivor model) used for generating a score that indicates a likelihooda given user will terminate access to a service/source. For example, themedia guidance application may process the viewer data with thesubscription data using the model to generate a value or score thatindicates a likelihood of whether the given user will terminate accessto a particular service or source. In particular, a higher score mayindicate a higher level of confidence that the user will terminateaccess to a particular service or source. Based on the score, the mediaguidance application may generate promotions that entice the user tokeep the particular service or source indicated by the score as one towhich the user will likely terminate access.

Media guidance applications may be, for example, stand-aloneapplications implemented on user equipment devices. For example, themedia guidance application may be implemented as software or a set ofexecutable instructions which may be stored in storage 508, and executedby control circuitry 504 of a user equipment device 500. In someembodiments, media guidance applications may be client-serverapplications where only a client application resides on the userequipment device, and server application resides on a remote server. Forexample, media guidance applications may be implemented partially as aclient application on control circuitry 504 of user equipment device 500and partially on a remote server as a server application (e.g., mediaguidance data source 618) running on control circuitry of the remoteserver. When executed by control circuitry of the remote server (such asmedia guidance data source 618), the media guidance application mayinstruct the control circuitry to generate the guidance applicationdisplays and transmit the generated displays to the user equipmentdevices. The server application may instruct the control circuitry ofthe media guidance data source 618 to transmit data for storage on theuser equipment. The client application may instruct control circuitry ofthe receiving user equipment to generate the guidance applicationdisplays.

Content and/or media guidance data delivered to user equipment devices602, 604, and 606 may be over-the-top (OTT) content. OTT contentdelivery allows Internet-enabled user devices, including any userequipment device described above, to receive content that is transferredover the Internet, including any content described above, in addition tocontent received over cable or satellite connections. OTT content isdelivered via an Internet connection provided by an Internet serviceprovider (ISP), but a third party distributes the content. The ISP maynot be responsible for the viewing abilities, copyrights, orredistribution of the content, and may only transfer IP packets providedby the OTT content provider. Examples of OTT content providers includeYOUTUBE, NETFLIX, and HULU, which provide audio and video via IPpackets. Youtube is a trademark owned by Google Inc., Netflix is atrademark owned by Netflix Inc., and Hulu is a trademark owned by Hulu,LLC. OTT content providers may additionally or alternatively providemedia guidance data described above. In addition to content and/or mediaguidance data, providers of OTT content can distribute media guidanceapplications (e.g., web-based applications or cloud-based applications),or the content can be displayed by media guidance applications stored onthe user equipment device.

Media guidance system 600 is intended to illustrate a number ofapproaches, or network configurations, by which user equipment devicesand sources of content and guidance data may communicate with each otherfor the purpose of accessing content and providing media guidance. Theembodiments described herein may be applied in any one or a subset ofthese approaches, or in a system employing other approaches fordelivering content and providing media guidance. The following fourapproaches provide specific illustrations of the generalized example ofFIG. 6.

In one approach, user equipment devices may communicate with each otherwithin a home network. User equipment devices can communicate with eachother directly via short-range point-to-point communication schemesdescribed above, via indirect paths through a hub or other similardevice provided on a home network, or via communications network 614.Each of the multiple individuals in a single home may operate differentuser equipment devices on the home network. As a result, it may bedesirable for various media guidance information or settings to becommunicated between the different user equipment devices. For example,it may be desirable for users to maintain consistent media guidanceapplication settings on different user equipment devices within a homenetwork, as described in greater detail in Ellis et al., U.S. PatentPublication No. 2005/0251827, filed Jul. 11, 2005. Different types ofuser equipment devices in a home network may also communicate with eachother to transmit content. For example, a user may transmit content fromuser computer equipment to a portable video player or portable musicplayer.

In a second approach, users may have multiple types of user equipment bywhich they access content and obtain media guidance. For example, someusers may have home networks that are accessed by in-home and mobiledevices. Users may control in-home devices via a media guidanceapplication implemented on a remote device. For example, users mayaccess an online media guidance application on a website via a personalcomputer at their office, or a mobile device such as a PDA orweb-enabled mobile telephone. The user may set various settings (e.g.,recordings, reminders, or other settings) on the online guidanceapplication to control the user's in-home equipment. The online guidemay control the user's equipment directly, or by communicating with amedia guidance application on the user's in-home equipment. Varioussystems and methods for user equipment devices communicating, where theuser equipment devices are in locations remote from each other, isdiscussed in, for example, Ellis et al., U.S. Pat. No. 8,046,801, issuedOct. 25, 2011, which is hereby incorporated by reference herein in itsentirety.

In a third approach, users of user equipment devices inside and outsidea home can use their media guidance application to communicate directlywith content source 616 to access content. Specifically, within a home,users of user television equipment 602 and user computer equipment 604may access the media guidance application to navigate among and locatedesirable content. Users may also access the media guidance applicationoutside of the home using wireless user communications devices 606 tonavigate among and locate desirable content.

In a fourth approach, user equipment devices may operate in a cloudcomputing environment to access cloud services. In a cloud computingenvironment, various types of computing services for content sharing,storage or distribution (e.g., video sharing sites or social networkingsites) are provided by a collection of network-accessible computing andstorage resources, referred to as “the cloud.” For example, the cloudcan include a collection of server computing devices, which may belocated centrally or at distributed locations, that provide cloud-basedservices to various types of users and devices connected via a networksuch as the Internet via communications network 614. These cloudresources may include one or more content sources 616 and one or moremedia guidance data sources 618. In addition or in the alternative, theremote computing sites may include other user equipment devices, such asuser television equipment 602, user computer equipment 604, and wirelessuser communications device 606. For example, the other user equipmentdevices may provide access to a stored copy of a video or a streamedvideo. In such embodiments, user equipment devices may operate in apeer-to-peer manner without communicating with a central server.

The cloud provides access to services, such as content storage, contentsharing, or social networking services, among other examples, as well asaccess to any content described above, for user equipment devices.Services can be provided in the cloud through cloud computing serviceproviders, or through other providers of online services. For example,the cloud-based services can include a content storage service, acontent sharing site, a social networking site, or other services viawhich user-sourced content is distributed for viewing by others onconnected devices. These cloud-based services may allow a user equipmentdevice to store content to the cloud and to receive content from thecloud rather than storing content locally and accessing locally-storedcontent.

A user may use various content capture devices, such as camcorders,digital cameras with video mode, audio recorders, mobile phones, andhandheld computing devices, to record content. The user can uploadcontent to a content storage service on the cloud either directly, forexample, from user computer equipment 604 or wireless usercommunications device 606 having content capture feature. Alternatively,the user can first transfer the content to a user equipment device, suchas user computer equipment 604. The user equipment device storing thecontent uploads the content to the cloud using a data transmissionservice on communications network 614. In some embodiments, the userequipment device itself is a cloud resource, and other user equipmentdevices can access the content directly from the user equipment deviceon which the user stored the content.

Cloud resources may be accessed by a user equipment device using, forexample, a web browser, a media guidance application, a desktopapplication, a mobile application, and/or any combination of accessapplications of the same. The user equipment device may be a cloudclient that relies on cloud computing for application delivery, or theuser equipment device may have some functionality without access tocloud resources. For example, some applications running on the userequipment device may be cloud applications, i.e., applications deliveredas a service over the Internet, while other applications may be storedand run on the user equipment device. In some embodiments, a user devicemay receive content from multiple cloud resources simultaneously. Forexample, a user device can stream audio from one cloud resource whiledownloading content from a second cloud resource. Or a user device candownload content from multiple cloud resources for more efficientdownloading. In some embodiments, user equipment devices can use cloudresources for processing operations such as the processing operationsperformed by processing circuitry described in relation to FIG. 5.

As referred to herein, the term “in response to” refers to initiated asa result of. For example, a first action being performed in response toa second action may include interstitial steps between the first actionand the second action. As referred to herein, the term “directly inresponse to” refers to caused by. For example, a first action beingperformed directly in response to a second action may not includeinterstitial steps between the first action and the second action.

FIG. 7 is a flowchart of illustrative steps for associating a mediaasset with a physical object and automatically presenting the mediaasset when the physical object is detected. It should be noted thatprocess 700, or any step thereof, could occur on, or be provided by, anyof the devices shown in FIGS. 5-6. For example, process 700 may beexecuted by control circuitry 504 (FIG. 5) as instructed by the mediaguidance application (e.g., implemented on any of the devices shown anddescribed in FIG. 6).

In step 702, the media guidance application stores (e.g., in storage 508(FIG. 5)) a digital description of a physical object (e.g., exercisebike 106 (FIG. 1)) in an augmented reality environment of a user. Forexample, the media guidance application may detect (e.g., using controlcircuitry 506 (FIG. 5)) an exercise bike in a user's augmented realityenvironment via a camera in the user's augmented reality headset (e.g.,headset 106 (FIG. 1)). For example, the media guidance application maystore a digital representation of an image of the exercise bike inmemory.

In step 704, the media guidance application receives (e.g., usingcontrol circuitry 506 (FIG. 5)) a user input from the user, assigning amedia asset to the physical object (e.g., exercise bike 106 (FIG. 1)).For example, the user may identify a workout song “Pump Up” to beassociated with the exercise bike. For example, the media guidanceapplication may present a digital menu on the display of the user'saugmented reality headset, and the user may interact with the digitalmenu using hand gestures to associate “Pump Up” with the exercise bike.For example, the user may move a hand upwards to indicate a desire toscroll up in the menu. For example, the user may point at the area onwhich a media asset in the digital menu is overlaid.

In step 706, the media guidance application may, after receiving theuser input assigning the media asset to the physical object, detect(e.g., using control circuitry 506 (FIG. 5)) the physical object in theaugmented reality environment by comparing digital descriptions ofphysical objects in the augmented reality environment to the digitaldescription of the physical object. For example, the media guidanceapplication may detect the exercise bike when it is present in theuser's augmented reality environment by comparing descriptions of imagesof physical objects in the user's augmented reality with the storeddigital description of the exercise bike.

In step 708, the media guidance application, in response to detectingthe physical object in the augmented reality environment, automaticallycauses (e.g., using control circuitry 506 (FIG. 5)) the media asset tobe presented. For example, in response to detecting the exercise bike inthe user's augmented reality environment, the media guidance applicationmay automatically cause the workout song “Pump Up” to be presented tothe user.

In some embodiments, the media guidance application may analyze eachvideo frame of the user's live real-world environment from a camera tocreate a digital description of the physical object. For example, themedia guidance application may analyze each video frame of the user'senvironment from a camera on the user's headset.

In some embodiments, the digital description of the physical object maybe created using image segmentation and edge detection on an image ofthe physical object. For example, the digital description of theexercise bike may be created by applying image segmentation and edgedetection to an image of the exercise bike. The media guidanceapplication may partition each video frame into image segments based oncharacteristics such as color, intensity, and texture. For example, themedia guidance application may analyze a video frame including theexercise bike and may partition the frame to an image segment thatincludes only the exercise bike.

The media guidance application may apply edge detection to the imagesegments to identify edges of the object in each of the image segments.For example, the media guidance application may determine the points inthe image segments at which brightness of pixels change drastically todetermine edges of objects in the image segments. For example, the mediaguidance application may determine edges of the exercise bike in theimage segment. The media guidance application may create the digitaldescription of the object using the edges.

In some embodiments, the digital description of the physical object maybe created using blob detection on an image of the physical object. Forexample, the digital description of the exercise bike may be created byapplying blob detection to an image of the exercise bike. For example,the media guidance application may determine regions in the video frame,wherein a region has approximately constant characteristics throughoutand two neighboring regions have different characteristics. The mediaguidance application may create the digital description of the objectusing the determined regions.

In some embodiments, the digital description of the physical object maybe an alphanumeric value describing the shape and color of the physicalobject. For example, the digital description of the exercise bike may bean alphanumeric value.

In some embodiments, the media guidance application may analyze videoframes intermittently (e.g., one every certain period of time or oneevery certain number of frames).

In some embodiments, the augmented reality environment may be areal-world physical environment supplemented by computer-generatedsensory inputs. For example, the augmented reality environment may be anexercise room with overlaid graphics and audio. For example, the usermay perceive the augmented reality environment through a see-throughdisplay, which overlays graphics over the real world.

In some embodiments, the user initially identifies the physical objectby performing a hand gesture over the physical object. For example, theuser may point to the exercise bike, identifying it to the mediaguidance application.

In some embodiments, the user input assigning the media asset to thephysical object may be a voice input identifying the media asset. Forexample, the user may say, “Pump Up song,” identifying the workout song“Pump Up” to be associated with the exercise bike.

In some embodiments, the user input assigning the media asset to thephysical object may include hand gestures navigating to the media asset.For example, users may navigate media asset libraries presented in theaugmented reality environments by waving their hands and pointing to themedia asset listings they desire.

In some embodiments, the media guidance application may change theassociation of a media asset with a first physical object to anassociation of the media asset with a second physical object. Forexample, a user may associate a workout song with an exercise bike andthen may wish to associate the workout song with a yoga mat instead. Themedia guidance application may receive a first user input identifying afirst physical object. For example, the user may point to the exercisebike and the media guidance application may detect the user pointing tothe exercise bike through a camera. The media guidance application mayreceive a second user input identifying a second physical object. Forexample, the user may point to the yoga mat after pointing to theexercise bike. The media guidance application may, in response toreceiving the second user input, change an association of a first mediaasset with the first physical object to an association of the firstmedia asset with the second physical object. For example, the mediaguidance application may, in response to receiving the user inputs,associate media content that was originally associated with the exercisebike with the yoga mat instead. In some embodiments, the first andsecond user input may be one continuous input. For example, the user maydrag media content from the first physical object to the second physicalobject. For example, the user may point at the exercise bike and thenmove his hand to point at the yoga mat and the media guidanceapplication may detect the motion of the user's hand from pointing atthe first physical object to pointing at the second physical object.

In some embodiments, the media guidance application may store a digitaldescription of a physical object in the augmented reality environment bycreating an object identifier associated with the physical object. Forexample, the media guidance application may create a unique identifierfor a physical object and associate the identifier with the digitaldescription of the physical object.

The media guidance application may store the object identifier and thedigital description in a first database listing object identifiers, eachcorresponding to a digital description. For example, the media guidanceapplication may store an identifier identifying the exercise bike andthe digital description of the exercise bike in a first database.

In some embodiments, the media guidance application may store a mediaasset identifier associated with the media asset and the objectidentifier in a second database listing object identifiers, eachcorresponding to a media asset. For example, the media guidanceapplication may store a media asset identifier identifying the workoutsong “Pump Up” and the object identifier identifying the exercise bikein a second database.

In some embodiments, the media guidance application may associate aplurality of media assets with a physical object. For example, the mediaguidance application may associate a playlist of workout songs with anexercise bike. In some embodiments, the media guidance applicationstores a plurality of media asset identifiers associated with mediaassets and a corresponding object identifier in a database listingobject identifiers. For example, the media guidance application maystore, in a database, media asset identifiers identifying media assetsin the playlist of workout songs and an object identifier identifyingthe exercise bike. The media guidance application may automaticallycause media assets corresponding to the media asset identifiers to bepresented when the physical object is detected in the augmented realityenvironment. For example, the media guidance application mayautomatically play the playlist of workout songs when an exercise bikeis detected in the augmented reality environment.

In some embodiments, the media guidance application may determine a ruleassociated with the plurality of media assets that is associated with aphysical object. For example, the media guidance application maydetermine that all of the media assets associated with an exercise bikeare workout songs. The media guidance application may determine whethera second media asset applies to the rule. For example, a new workoutsong may become available and the media guidance application maydetermine whether the new song should be associated with the exercisebike. The media guidance application may, in response to determiningthat the second media asset applies to the rule, automatically add thesecond media asset to the plurality of media assets associated with thephysical object. For example, the media guidance application may add thenew song to the media assets associated with the exercise bike.

In some embodiments, the media guidance application may associate amedia asset with a plurality of physical objects. For example, the mediaguidance application may associate a workout song with both a pair ofdumbbells and a kettle ball. The media guidance application may presentthe media asset associated with the plurality of physical objects onlywhen the plurality of physical objects is detected. For example, theworkout song may only play when the user sees both the pair of dumbbellsand the kettle ball. For example, the workout song may not play when theuser only sees the pair of dumbbells and not the kettle ball. In someembodiments, the media guidance application may present the media assetwhen the number of detected physical objects of the plurality ofphysical objects is greater than a threshold. For example, the user mayassociate a movie with ten physical objects in the user's living roomand the media guidance application may play the movie if at least fiveof the ten physical objects are detected. This provides the benefit ofallowing users to create subsets of media content by associating certainmedia assets with a physical object and associating different mediaassets with a plurality of physical objects including the physicalobject. This also provides the benefit of allowing the users to controlaccess to media content, since users can come up with combinations ofphysical objects that would not normally be together. For example, auser may associate violent movies that are unsuitable for children withthe Moon and a beer bottle and the media guidance application may onlypresent the violent movies when both the Moon and the beer bottle aredetected. This also provides the benefit of decreasing inadvertentaccess to media content.

In some embodiments, the media guidance application may associate themedia asset with a user action involving the physical object. Forexample, the media guidance application may associate the workout song“Pump Up” with the unrolling of a yoga mat. For example, the mediaguidance application may store a digital description of a yoga matunrolling, and may associate the digital description with the mediaasset.

The media guidance application may receive a first user input,identifying an action as a trigger. For example, the user may identifylifting dumbbells as a trigger. The media guidance application may storea digital description of the action. For example, the media guidanceapplication may store a digital description of a video of dumbbellsbeing lifted.

The media guidance application may receive a second user input,identifying a media asset to associate with the trigger. For example,the user may say, “Pump Up song,” identifying the workout song “PumpUp,” to be associated with lifting dumbbells.

The media guidance application may detect the trigger, by comparingdigital descriptions of actions in the user's augmented realityenvironment to the digital description of the trigger. For example, themedia guidance application may detect that the user is liftingdumbbells. In response to detecting the trigger, the media guidanceapplication may automatically present the media asset to the user. Forexample, when the media guidance application detects the user is liftingdumbbells, the media guidance application may automatically play theworkout song “Pump Up.”

In some embodiments, the media guidance application may associate amedia asset with a location. For example, the media guidance applicationmay associate the workout song “Pump Up” with an exercise room. Themedia guidance application may store a digital description of alocation. For example, the media guidance application may store theGlobal Position System (“GPS”) coordinates as the digital descriptionfor the exercise room. In another example, the media guidanceapplication may store a digital description of all the objects (e.g.,exercise bike) in the user's augmented reality environment as thedigital description of the exercise room.

In some embodiments, the media guidance application may associate acategory of media assets with a physical object in an augmented realityenvironment. For example, the media guidance application may associateworkout videos with an exercise bike. The media guidance application mayreceive a user input identifying the category of media assets to beassociated with the physical object. For example, the user may look atan exercise bike and say “workout videos” to associate workout videoswith the exercise bike.

FIG. 8 is a flowchart of illustrative steps for associating an inputscheme with a physical object and allowing a user to controlpresentation of media content with the physical object. It should benoted that process 800, or any step thereof, could occur on, or beprovided by, any of the devices shown in FIGS. 5-6. For example, process800 may be executed by control circuitry 504 (FIG. 5) as instructed bythe media guidance application (e.g., implemented on any of the devicesshown and described in FIG. 6).

In step 802, the media guidance application may store (e.g., in storage508 (FIG. 5)) a digital description of a physical object in an augmentedreality environment of a user. For example, the media guidanceapplication may detect a water bottle in a user's augmented realityenvironment via a camera in the user's augmented reality headset. Forexample, the media guidance application may store a digitalrepresentation of an image of the water bottle in memory.

In step 804, the media guidance application receives (e.g., usingcontrol circuitry 506 (FIG. 5)) a user input (e.g., via user inputinterface 510 (FIG. 5)), from the user, assigning an input scheme forcontrolling presentation of media content (e.g., volume, playback speed)to the physical object. For example, the user may identify an inputscheme to pause media content when drinking from the water bottle.

In some embodiments, the user input assigning an input scheme forcontrolling presentation of media content to the physical object is acombination of a voice input identifying an attribute of thepresentation of media content to be controlled and a gesture inputidentifying the interaction with the physical object that controls theattribute. For example, the user may say, “pause,” and, simultaneously,open a water bottle to indicate a desire to pause media content when thewater bottle is opened.

In some embodiments, the media guidance application creates and stores adigital description of the gesture input identifying the interactionwith the physical object. For example, the media guidance applicationmay detect the gesture input in a video from the camera. The mediaguidance application may apply object recognition and motion detectionto the video to create a digital description of the gesture input. Forexample, the media guidance application may determine a change in theposition of the object in the video relative to other objects in thevideo. In another example, the media guidance application may determinea change in the position of parts of the object in the video relative tothe object's center. The media guidance application may store thedigital description of the gesture. For example, the media guidanceapplication may store the digital description of the gesture in storageon the user's local device, or on a server.

In some embodiments, the attribute of presentation is selected by theuser from a list of predefined attributes. For example, the mediaguidance application may generate for display a list of attributes(e.g., pause/play, volume, playback speed, brightness, etc.) from whichthe user may select one.

In some embodiments, the interaction with the physical object thatcontrols the attribute is selected by the user from a list of predefinedinteractions. For example, the media guidance application may generatefor display a list of interactions (e.g., touch, lift, knock-on, point,etc.) from which the user may select one.

In some embodiments, the input scheme for controlling presentation ofmedia content is one of a plurality of predefined input schemes, eachassociated with a physical object. For example, when the media guidanceapplication detects a yoga mat, it may display predefined input schemesassociated with yoga mats. For example, the media guidance applicationmay generate for display a list of predefined input schemes associatedwith yoga mats, including play media when unrolling yoga mat and pausemedia when rolling-up yoga mat.

In some embodiments, the media guidance application retrieves predefinedinput schemes associated with a physical object from a server, afterstoring a digital description of the physical object. For example, afterstoring the digital description of the exercise bike, the media guidanceapplication may retrieve predefined input schemes associated with anexercise bike.

In some embodiments, the interaction with the physical object may beassociated with navigating a digital library of media content. Forexample, the user may wish to associate peddling on an exercise bikewith scrolling through a list of songs. For example, the user may scrollthrough the list of songs by peddling faster. For example, the mediaguidance application may detect the peddles on the exercise bike arerotating faster by applying motion detection to a video input of thebike and may scroll through the list of songs.

In step 806, the media guidance application, after receiving the userinput assigning the input scheme for controlling presentation of mediacontent to the physical object, detects (e.g., using control circuitry506 (FIG. 5)) the physical object (e.g., exercise bike 106 (FIG. 1)) inthe augmented reality environment by comparing digital descriptions ofphysical objects in the augmented reality environment to the digitaldescription of the first object. For example, the media guidanceapplication may detect the water bottle when it is present in the user'saugmented reality environment by comparing descriptions of images ofphysical objects in the user's augmented reality with the stored digitaldescription of the water bottle.

In step 808, the media guidance application, in response to detectingthe physical object in the augmented reality environment, controls(e.g., using control circuitry 506 (FIG. 5)) presentation of mediacontent using the input scheme. For example, the user may pause themedia content by opening the water bottle.

In some embodiments, the media guidance application controlspresentation of media content using the input scheme by monitoring theuser's augmented reality environment for a user interaction with thephysical object. For example, the media guidance application maycontinuously analyze a video input from the camera to detect a userinteraction with the water bottle. For example, the media guidanceapplication may apply object recognition and motion detection to thevideo input from the camera to detect the user's hand removing thebottle cap. The media guidance application may, in response to detectinga user interaction with the physical object, determine an input schemethat uses the user interaction. For example, the media guidanceapplication may determine that opening the water bottle is part of aninput scheme that pauses media content when the water bottle is opened.The media guidance application may change presentation of media contentaccording to the input scheme. For example, when the user opens thewater bottle, the media guidance application may pause the mediacontent.

In some embodiments, the media guidance application may interface with aphysical object. For example, the media guidance application maytransmit and receive data from the physical object via a communicationspath (e.g., communications path 608, 610, 612 (FIG. 6)). The mediaguidance application may receive a user input from the physical objectover a communications path. For example, a user may press a button on anexercise bike, and the exercise bike may transmit the user input to theuser's device. In some embodiments, an input scheme may includereceiving a user input from a physical object. For example, the user mayassign the button on the exercise bike to increase the volume of themedia content. When the user presses the button, the exercise bike maytransmit the button press to the user's augmented reality headset, andthe media guidance application may increase the volume.

In some embodiments, the media guidance application may detect a brandof a physical object. For example, the media guidance application maydetect a logo on an exercise bike, identifying the brand of the exercisebike. The media guidance application may retrieve input schemesassociated with physical objects of the brand. For example, the mediaguidance application may retrieve a list of buttons, knobs, switches,touch screens, or any other input devices available on physical objectsof the brand. For example, the media guidance application may retrievethat there is a button on the exercise bike that may be used topause/play media content, control the volume of media content, etc.

In some embodiments, physical objects of different brands have differentdigital descriptions. For example, an exercise bike of brand A may havea different alphanumeric value from an exercise bike of brand B.

FIGS. 9 and 10 present processes implemented on control circuitry (e.g.,control circuitry 504) to identify a physical object in an augmentedreality environment using a database containing a history of digitaldescriptions of physical objects, each corresponding to a media asset inaccordance with some embodiments of the disclosure. In some embodimentsthis process may be encoded on to non-transitory storage medium (e.g.,storage device 508) as a set of instructions to be decoded and executedby processing circuitry (e.g., processing circuitry 506). Processingcircuitry may in turn provide instructions to other sub-circuitscontained within control circuitry 504, such as the tuning, videogenerating, encoding, decoding, encrypting, decrypting, scaling,analog/digital conversion circuitry, and the like.

The flowchart in FIG. 9 describes a process implemented on controlcircuitry (e.g., control circuitry 504) to search a database, identify aphysical object in an augmented reality environment, and automaticallypresent a media asset associated with the physical object in accordancewith some embodiments of the disclosure.

At step 902, control circuitry 504 will begin to search a database andidentify a physical object in an augmented reality environment. In someembodiments, this may be done either directly or indirectly in responseto a user action or input (e.g., from signals received by controlcircuitry 504 or user input interface 510).

At step 904, control circuitry 504 proceeds to analyze an image/videoframe to create a digital description of each physical object in theimage/video frame.

At step 906, control circuitry 504 proceeds to retrieve the next digitaldescription of a physical object from stored memory. In some embodimentscontrol circuitry 504 may retrieve a single primitive data structurethat represents the value of the digital description. In someembodiments control circuitry 504 may retrieve the value from a largerclass or data structure.

At step 908, control circuitry 504 accesses a database containing ahistory of values of digital descriptions. In some embodiments, thisdatabase may be stored locally (e.g., on storage device 508) prior tobeginning the algorithm. In some embodiments the database may also beaccessed by using communications circuitry to transmit informationacross a communications network (e.g., communications network 614) to adatabase implemented on a remote storage device (e.g., media guidancedata source 618).

At step 910, control circuitry 504 searches database tables for entriesmatching the digital description of the physical object. In someembodiments this may be done by comparing an identifier, for example astring, integer, or alphanumeric value representing the digitaldescription, that matches the types of identifiers used inside thedatabase. In some embodiments control circuitry 504 may submit a generalquery to the database for table entries matching the digital descriptionof the physical object, and control circuitry 504 may receive a list ofindices or a data structure containing a portion of the databasecontents. In some embodiments the database may implement a junctiontable that in turn cross-references entries from other databases. Inthis case, control circuitry 504 may retrieve indices from a firstdatabase that in turn can be used to retrieve information from a seconddatabase. Although we may describe control circuitry 504 interactingwith a single database for purposes of clarity, it is understood thatthe algorithm of FIG. 9 may be implemented using multiple independent orcross-referenced databases.

At step 912, control circuitry 504 determines if there are databaseentries that match or are similar to the digital description. In someembodiments control circuitry 504 may receive a signal from the databaseindicating that there are no matching entries. In some embodimentscontrol circuitry 504 may instead receive a list of indices or datastructures with a NULL or dummy value. If control circuitry 504identifies that there are database entries that match or are similar tothe digital description the algorithm proceeds to step 914, otherwisethe algorithm proceeds to step 916.

At step 914, control circuitry 504 executes a subroutine toautomatically present the media asset corresponding to the digitaldescription of the physical object.

At step 916, control circuitry 504 determines if all digitaldescriptions are accounted for and if further iterations are needed. Iffurther iterations are needed the algorithm will loop back to step 906where control circuitry 504 will retrieve the next digital description.

It is contemplated that the descriptions of FIG. 9 may be used with anyother embodiment of this disclosure. In addition, the descriptionsdescribed in relation to process 900 of FIG. 9 may be done inalternative orders or in parallel to further the purposes of thisdisclosure. For example, control circuitry 504 may submit multiplequeries to the database in parallel, or it may submit multiple queriesto a plurality of similar databases in order to reduce lag and speed theexecution of process 900. To further this purpose, in some embodimentsstep 912 may be performed in parallel by control circuitry 504.Furthermore, it should be noted that the process of FIG. 9 may beimplemented on a combination of appropriately configured software andhardware, and that any of the devices or equipment discussed in relationto FIGS. 5-6 could be used to implement one or more portions of thealgorithm.

The pseudocode in FIG. 10 describes a process to identify a physicalobject in an augmented reality environment and automatically present amedia asset that is associated with the physical object in accordancewith some embodiments of the disclosure. It will be evident to oneskilled in the art that process 1000 described by the pseudocode in FIG.10 may be implemented in any number of programming languages and on avariety of different hardware, and that the style and format should notbe construed as limiting, but rather as a general template of the stepsand procedures that would be consistent with code used to implement someembodiments of this disclosure.

At line 1001, control circuitry 504 runs a subroutine to initializevariables and prepare to identify a physical object in an augmentedreality environment, which begins on line 1005. For example, in someembodiments control circuitry 504 may copy instructions from anon-transitory storage medium (e.g., storage device 508) into RAM orinto the cache for processing circuitry 506 during the initializationstage.

Line 1003 includes a comment describing the purpose of the subroutine.In some embodiments, control circuitry 504 ignores the comment. In someembodiments, the comment is at the top of the code or on any other linein the code. In some embodiments, the comment is more specific bydescribing the purpose of specific variables and lines in the code. Insome embodiments, the comment is missing entirely.

At line 1005, control circuitry 504 analyzes an image/video frame tocreate a digital description of each physical object in the image/videoframe. In some embodiments, this image/video frame may be retrieved froma camera input.

At line 1006, control circuitry 504 iterates through the various digitaldescriptions; if only a single instance is available, the loop willexecute only once. This loop may be implemented in multiple fashionsdepending on the choice of hardware and software language used toimplement the algorithm of FIG. 10; for example, this may be implementedas part of a “for” or “while” loop, in some programming languages. Insome embodiments it may be convenient to store the digital descriptionsin a single class or encapsulated data structure that will perform theloop as part of an internal method.

At line 1007, control circuitry 504 queries a database for entriesmatching the digital description. Depending on how the database isimplemented and how the digital description is stored, an intermittentstep may be required to convert the digital description into a formconsistent with the database. For example, the digital description maybe encoded into a string, an integer, or an alphanumeric value using anappropriate hashing algorithm prior to being transmitted to the databaseby control circuitry 504 as part of a query. In some embodiments, thedigital description may be encoded as a primitive data structure, andcontrol circuitry 504 may submit the digital description as a query tothe database directly. After querying the database, control circuitry504 may receive a set of database entries that match or are similar tothe digital description. In some embodiments, control circuitry 504 mayreceive these entries in the form of a data structure, a set of indicesof the database, or a set of indices of another cross-referenceddatabase.

At line 1008, control circuitry 504 will determine if there are anydatabase entries that match or are similar to the digital description.In some embodiments control circuitry 504 may determine this by checkingif the database returned an empty data structure or a NULL value inresponse to the query in line 1007. If there are matching databaseentries the algorithm may proceed to line 1009. If there were nomatching database entries and there are more digital descriptions toprocess, the algorithm may instead proceed to the next iteration of theloop.

At line 1009, control circuitry 504 retrieves one or more values ofmedia assets from the database entries matching the digital description.For example, if control circuitry 504 retrieves a list of indices afterquerying the database in line 1007, in some embodiments controlcircuitry 504 may retrieve the database entries for media assets locatedat the received indices. In some embodiments the indices may point to alarger data structure contained within the database, and controlcircuitry 504 may retrieve the values of the media assets from withinthe data structure using appropriate accessor methods. In someembodiments control circuitry 504 may retrieve the values of mediaassets and store them in a separate data structure locally (e.g., instorage 509) prior to proceeding further. After retrieving the values ofthe media assets, the algorithm will proceed to line 1010.

At line 1010, control circuitry 504 executes a subroutine to use thevalues of the media assets and automatically present the media assetscorresponding to the digital description of the physical object usingcontrol circuitry. Afterwards, the algorithm may proceed to thetermination subroutine at line 1012.

At line 1012, control circuitry 504 executes a termination subroutineafter the algorithm has performed its function and all digitaldescriptions have been processed and checked against the database. Forexample, in some embodiments control circuitry 504 may destructvariables, perform garbage collection, free memory or clear the cache ofprocessing circuitry 506.

It will be evident to one skilled in the art that process 1000 describedby the pseudocode in FIG. 10 may be implemented in any number ofprogramming languages and a variety of different hardware, and theparticular choice and location of primitive functions, logicalevaluations, and function evaluations are not intended to be limiting.It will also be evident that the code may be refactored or rewritten tomanipulate the order of the various logical evaluations, perform severaliterations in parallel rather than in a single iterative loop, or tootherwise manipulate and optimize run-time and performance metricswithout fundamentally changing the inputs or final outputs. For example,in some embodiments the code may be re-written so control circuitry 504is instructed to evaluate multiple digital descriptions and submitmultiple database queries simultaneously using a plurality of processorsor processor threads. It is also understood that although we maydescribe control circuitry 504 interacting with a single database, thisis only a single embodiment described for illustrative purposes, and thealgorithm of FIG. 10 may be implemented using multiple independent orcross-referenced databases. For example, a database stored locally(e.g., on storage 508) may index or cross-reference a database storedremotely (e.g., media guidance data source 618), which may be accessiblethrough any number of communication channels (e.g., communicationsnetwork 614). In some embodiments, this may allow control circuitry 504to utilize a look-up table or database front-end efficiently stored on asmall local drive to access a larger database stored on a remote serveron demand.

The above-described embodiments of the present disclosure are presentedfor purposes of illustration and not of limitation, and the presentdisclosure is limited only by the claims that follow. Furthermore, itshould be noted that the features and limitations described in any oneembodiment may be applied to any other embodiment herein, and flowchartsor examples relating to one embodiment may be combined with any otherembodiment in a suitable manner, done in different orders, or done inparallel. In addition, the systems and methods described herein may beperformed in real time. It should also be noted, the systems and/ormethods described above may be applied to, or used in accordance with,other systems and/or methods.

What is claimed is:
 1. A method for controlling of media content withphysical world objects, the method comprising: storing digitaldescriptions of a plurality of physical objects in an augmented realityenvironment of a user; receiving a user input from the user assigning amedia asset to a first physical object separate from the user of theplurality of physical objects; detecting the first physical object and asecond physical object separate from the user of the plurality ofphysical object in the augmented reality environment by comparingdigital descriptions of physical objects in the augmented realityenvironment to the digital description of the first physical object andto the digital description of the second physical object; in response toidentifying user interaction with the second physical object after userinteraction with the first physical object in the augmented realityenvironment, reassigning the media asset from the first physical objectto the second physical object.
 2. The method of claim 1 furthercomprising identifying the first physical object by detecting a firsthand gesture over the first physical object.
 3. The method of claim 2further comprising identifying the second physical object by detecting asecond hand gesture over the second physical object, wherein the secondhand gesture is different from the first hand gesture.
 4. The method ofclaim 1 further comprising initially identifying initially the firstphysical object by detecting a hand gesture over the first physicalobject followed by identifying the second physical object by detectingthe hand gesture over the second physical object.
 5. The method of claim1, wherein the user input assigning the media asset to the firstphysical object is a voice input identifying the media asset.
 6. Themethod of claim 1 wherein reassigning the media asset comprisesreceiving another user input assigning the media asset to the secondphysical object.
 7. The method of claim 1 further comprising in responseto detecting the first physical object, automatically causing the mediaasset to be presented.
 8. The method of claim 1 further comprisingreceiving another input controlling presentation of the media asset. 9.The method of claim 1 wherein storing digital descriptions of theplurality of physical objects in the augmented reality environmentcomprises: creating an object identifier associated with the respectivephysical object; and storing the object identifier and the first digitaldescription in a database listing object identifiers, each correspondingto a digital description.
 10. The method of claim 9 further comprisingstoring a media asset identifier associated with the media asset and theobject identifier in a database listing object identifiers, eachcorresponding to a media asset.
 11. A system for controlling of mediacontent with physical world objects, the system comprising: storagecircuitry configure to store digital descriptions of a plurality ofphysical objects in an augmented reality environment of a user; aninput/output circuitry configured to receive a user input from the userassigning a media asset to a first physical object separate from theuser of the plurality of physical objects; a control circuitryconfigured to: detect the first physical object and a second physicalobject separate from the user of the plurality of physical object in theaugmented reality environment by comparing digital descriptions ofphysical objects in the augmented reality environment to the digitaldescription of the first physical object and to the digital descriptionof the second physical object; in response to identifying userinteraction with the second physical object after user interaction withthe first physical object in the augmented reality environment, reassignthe media asset from the first physical object to the second physicalobject.
 12. The system of claim 11 wherein the control circuitry isfurther configured to identify the first physical object by detecting afirst hand gesture over the first physical object.
 13. The system ofclaim 12 wherein the control circuitry is further configured to identifythe second physical object by detecting a second hand gesture over thesecond physical object, wherein the second hand gesture is differentfrom the first hand gesture.
 14. The system of claim 11 wherein thecontrol circuitry is further configured to initially identify the firstphysical object by detecting a hand gesture over the first physicalobject followed by identifying the second physical object by detectingthe hand gesture over the second physical object.
 15. The system ofclaim 11, wherein the user input assigning the media asset to the firstphysical object is a voice input identifying the media asset.
 16. Thesystem of claim 11 wherein to reassign the media asset, the controlcircuitry is further configured to receive another user input assigningthe media asset to the second physical object.
 17. The system of claim11 wherein the control circuitry is further configured to automaticallycause the media asset to be presented in response to detecting the firstphysical object.
 18. The system of claim 11 wherein the controlcircuitry is further configured to receive another input controllingpresentation of the media asset.
 19. The system of claim 11 wherein tostore digital descriptions of a plurality of physical objects in theaugmented reality environment, the control circuitry is furtherconfigured to: create an object identifier associated with therespective physical object; and store the object identifier and thefirst digital description in a database listing object identifiers, eachcorresponding to a digital description.
 20. The system of claim 19wherein the control circuitry is further configured to store a mediaasset identifier associated with the media asset and the objectidentifier in a database listing object identifiers, each correspondingto a media asset.